Rent Control: Academic Analysis and Public Sentiment

...The first section takes a brief look at the history of rent controls. Initially mostmeasures were aimed at preventing landlords from reaping what was perceived tobe a ‘windfall profit’ resulting from some sort of unexpected emergency. It alsodemonstrates the diversity of rent control measures, in particular when subsequentreforms are taken into account. In section 2, I discuss stylized features of rentcontrol and suggest to distinguish two idealized variants, the ‘transfer model’ andthe ‘regulated tenure model’. Section 3 reviews selected recent attempts to findpossible positive effects of rent regulation in imperfect housing markets. The finalsection asks how these recent advances relate to the public perception of the issuesin rent control and draws some conclusions for future research...